Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to scenarios in which customers have to wait for service. More specifically, in non-limiting exemplary embodiments, waiting customers in such environments as call centers and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are selectively presented with advertisements in a manner that revenues can be generated.
Description of the Related Art
Typically, call centers or IVR systems play music, provide some information about online sales or help sites, provide information about other related products of the same company or play some prerecorded message like “Your call is important to us. Please wait and your call will be answered in the order it was received” etc.
The present inventors have recognized that such waiting time potentially could be used to profitably utilize waiting time in scenarios such as call centers and IVR systems.